For Her Own Good: 150 Years of the Experts' Advice to Women [Paperback]

Barbara Ehrenreich (Author), Deirdre English (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1989

A provocative new perspective on female history, the history of American medicine and psychology, and the history of child-rearing unlike any other.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This dense, well-argued classic underscores the need to take expert advice with a shaker of salt. Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English ably show that many experts gleefully hammer recalcitrant souls into a shape acceptable to society, rather than encouraging people to find their own way. The book plunges into 150 years of misbegotten advice to women and questionable insights into feminine nature that have many modern parallels. In the service of better living through science, women have undergone deprivational rest cures that most war rules would disallow, submitted to surgical bludgeoning of ovaries and uterus to quell a list of unladylike behaviors, and humbly followed childcare advice that amounted to abuse. Though slanted by its bent toward worst cases and offenses against only one sex, it offers much to mull over for hopeful seekers of mix-and-bake directions for a better life.

From the Inside Flap

A provocative new perspective on female history, the history of American medicine and psychology, and the history of child-rearing unlike any other.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Anchor; First Anchor Books Edition edition (June 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385126514
• ISBN-13: 978-0385126519
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #854,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down, August 18, 2001

By 

A. Badus "picky reader" (New Haven, CT, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: For Her Own Good: 150 Years of the Experts' Advice to Women (Paperback)

I am fascinated by "For her own good". I had heard of some outrageous "treatments" prescribed to women in the past, but this book gives a broader view of the social and economic movements of the past 150 years and how they affected women. I had never imagined that science would betray women, becoming an instrument of their subordination! I was revolted by the arrogance and obtusity of some "experts" as portrayed in this book. As a college student, how could I not be outraged by reading that "she [woman] has a head almost too small for intellect but just big enough for love" (from a 1849 obstetrics text) ???

One cannot help wondering, after reading this book, whether women are finally free to shape their own destiny and role in society. It would be great, indeed, to see an updated edition of this excellent book.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishing, ludicrous history found nowhere else, April 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: For Her Own Good: 150 Years of the Experts' Advice to Women (Paperback)

The huge amount of patronizing, ridiculous, and wrong information directed at women in the last 150 years is documented nowhere better than in this book. Remember when experts said that women should perform only jobs involving heavy physical labor, not mental work, because "the uterus takes blood away from the brain"? Every skeptic should read this book, and be amazed at what nonsense has masqueraded as science. No other book has assembled the vast amount of historical references available in this one small book. It's easy to see how witch hunts get started, when even so-called experts believe and spew forth the nonsense documented by this book.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars After 20 years, I still think about this book., May 13, 2001

By 

Natalie Norris "mainecoast mama" (Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: For Her Own Good: 150 Years of the Experts' Advice to Women (Paperback)

I read For Her Own Good in college but this book still sticks with me. It's funny, because I haven't gone back to reread it. Yet the historical perspectives it had given me has allowed me to be more thoughtfully critical of the articles I read now and the decisions I make with my own health.

I am surprised with the one reviewer who is so dismissive. I wonder if "his" is a case of Flat-Earth syndrome or paranoia. Certainly this book has a point of view and is not neutral, but the facts are valid. Misperceptions as to women's health existed in the past, and perceptions are still evolving to best of our collective abilities.

I found this book fun and fabulous. Fun because history can be surprisingly shocking. And fabulous because the viceral reaction I had to it and how it has sharpened my awareness of what is said or believed in the name or science.